Premier League Preview

"Manchester City must start quickly out of the blocks for confidence-building form and the chance to sit top of the table early on. If City can reproduce the form of last winter, when goals were being fired in as if they were going out of fashion, all will be well in Manchester."

Edin Dzeko is also in talks about an extended deal, while Samir Nasri and Aleksandar Kolarov signed contract extensions earlier in the summer, and Pellegrini, who is delighted to keep three of his finest players, has suggested still more agree to stay on at the Etihad Stadium.

"I think it is very important for the club to retain the best players. I think it is also important for the club that they want to stay here because they are working very well and this is a club that has a lot of ambition for the future," Pellegrini said.

"They understand that and maybe you will know in the next few days about other players who extend their contracts."

City won the Premier League and the League Cup last season but manager Pellegrini believes they have a better group of players as a result of his summer recruitment.

The Chilean has made six signings and said: "We try to have a stronger squad than this year. Last year we had a very good squad and a very successful year but that is the past, that is history.

"Now we must try this year to have a strong squad and I think that bringing in important players as Willy Caballero, as [Bacary] Sagna, as Mangala, as Fernando, as Frank Lampard will make us a strong squad."

They have already filled their quota of 17 non-homegrown players in their squad and are restricted to a £49 million net spend by UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.

He said: "We will see from now until the end of the window but we have important restrictions on the amount of money we can spend and the number of players we can have in our squad. We have time until the end of the transfer window but I think the squad is ready."